Integrate network switching system

ABSTRACT

This invention discloses an integrated exchange system for the terminal edge network connections. The integrated exchange system, comprising an IP packet based switch system and a telephony executive engine, is capable to execute IP and non-IP communication protocols, which puts LAN, WAN, PSTN and POTS together to offer the data network functionalities of Ethernet switch, route, gateway, firewall, VPN tunnel, and voice communication functionalities of IP-PBX, voice mail box, computer telephony and call center.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an IP packet based integrated datanetwork and telecommunication system that provides terminal edgenetworking with converged services including LAN and WAN connection andsecurity, local and long distance voice switching, as well as a platformto deliver value added services such as managed services, hosting,storage, unified messaging, and e-Business contents.

Traditionally home users, small offices, and mid-sized enterprises wouldcontract different carriers for various data networks services andtelecommunications services. Among these services, communicationequipments of IP based and non-IP based should be set up and linked incomplicated ways to meet carriers requirements. Such an environment isexpensive in build-up, complex in use, cumbersome for understanding andless capable to deliver and manage add-value services. A need arises fora solution that provides an integrated data(IP) networks andtelephony(non-IP) communications system that reduces the number ofnetworking facilities, such as GATEWAY or GATEKEEPER, ROUTER, FIREWALL,VOICE MAIL BOX, PBX, that are required to work together at the customerlocation, reduces interactions to manage ongoing operations, simplifiesthe dealing with associated administrative overhead.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The main purpose of the invention offers an integrated business exchangesystem to the network terminal edge users for the their data and voicecommunications over IP networks and non-IP networks. The system isconstructed in low cost and easy maintenance.

Another purpose of the invention is to offer a networking system withsimple, flexible, dynamic and easy add-value service delivery.

To achieve these goals, a unique way is implemented.

An integrated network system consists of central exchange system, aninter-network to execute non-IP protocols, and at least one terminal forconverged business data processing. The central exchange system is madeof at least one computer and one network which links the main controlunit to form a local area network. Each computer has a basic exchangeunit to capture, analyze, and format data. The basic exchange unitoutputs to a IP network. The Non-IP protocol process unit links to theterminals and one network control unit links at least to the basicexchange unit.

The mentioned network link unit consists of network switch andcontroller. The mentioned non-IP protocol network includes publicservice telephone network(PSTN), dedicated data networks and satellitenetworks.

The mentioned network terminals include at least central control unit,network interface unit, subscriber unit and bus unit, which are theindustrial parallel buses or serial buses.

The mentioned main control unit include at least the CPU, dataprocessor, calendar, storage unit, network interface, and bus unit. Allthese units are associative directly to CPU.

The mentioned network interface unit includes at least the local areanetwork(LAN) and the wide area network(WAN) interfaces. The mentionedsubscriber unit includes at least the analog subscriber loop interfaceunit, the subscriber loop paired interface unit, and the plain oldtelephone loop IC(POTSIC) unit.

The mentioned POTSIC includes line function switch circuitry ofsemiconductor transistors or relays, AC-DC convert, voltage currentlimiters, line status monitoring circuitry and digital control logics ofTTL or VLSI.

The mentioned analog subscriber loop interface unit includes ringgenerator, hook circuitry, voice transceiver circuitry. The subscriberloop paired unit includes a power down monitor, for which the inter deskphone can be switched back to outgoing telephone line while power isoff.

The mentioned basic exchange unit includes at least the unified accessplatform (UAP), unified exchange platform (UXP) and one backgroundserver. The UAP links to the UXP and to the background server via thenetwork interface unit.

The mentioned UAP consists of the call manager unit, device supervisionand scanning unit. With the supervision unit, subscriber data arecaptured and converted to the IP packets, and issued requests to callmanager unit for connection. The call manager unit links to the taskscheduler of the UXP via network interface unit.

The mentioned UXP consists of at least task scheduler for exchangemaintenance, the database for data processing, the unified calling unitfor processing the data, voice or video services calls. All of theseunits are associates to the background server.

The mentioned background server includes numbering server for numberquest, the billing server, the verification server for validatingsubscribers, and the performance monitor server.

The mentioned unified exchange system enables the telecommunication ofthe traditional PSTN over the LAN, WAN even with the VPN tunnelcapability. The telephony protocols can be the IPv4, IPv6, ATM or H.323.

In the summary, the integrated exchange system of the invention ismainly consisted of central exchange system, non-IP executing network,and integrate network terminals. The central exchange system is workedon IP packet softswitching technology plus dedicated proprietary routingprotocol for information exchange between IP networks and non-IPnetworks.

This invention presents an unique communication exchange system, whichtremendously takes the advantage of the IP packet soft switchingmethodology to make the data networking and telecommunication over LAN,WAN, PSTN and VPN seamlessly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a central exchange systeminfrastructure in accordance with the present invention. It shows how isthe exchange built-up.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a basic exchange unit infrastructureand data processing in accordance with the present invention. It showsthe fundamental processes taking place in the real world exchangesystem.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a converged network exchange systeminfrastructure in accordance with the present invention. It shows theconnections between IP networks and non-IP networks.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a converged business exchange unitinfrastructure in accordance with the present invention. It illustratesthe overall building block of the exchanger.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a central processing unitinfrastructure in accordance with the present invention. It illustrateshow the real component blocks is built on the main system board.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a power unit in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a subscriber interface infrastructurein accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an integrated voice loop unitinfrastructure in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a converged business exchange system implementation inaccordance with the present invention. It shows the real connection ofdata networks, telecommunication and IP telephony to an all-in-one box.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a converged terminal edge networkexchange implementation in accordance with the present invention. Itillustrates an actual terminal edge converged business exchange thatputs the various communication terminals connection together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment of an integrated data networks and telecommunicationssystem, in accordance with the present invention, is shown in FIG. #1.The embodiment includes three major highly integrated layers: a unifiedaccess platform 11, a unified exchange platform 12 and backgroundservers 13. The background servers include various servers to performdifferent functions, such as a numbering server, bill rating server,verification server, bill clearance server, and performance monitorserver. Among them, the numbering server is for call number processing,a bill rating server for the billing analysis in different servicelocations and time spans, a verification server for validatingsubscriber, a billing server for bill clearance and a performancemonitoring server for supervision the exchange system running status.

Subscribers from various kind of network access the central exchangesystem through a unified access platform 11. By the process of theunified exchange platform 12 and the unified access platform, datainformation from various kind of networks are converted into IP packetsfor easy transportation to the any kind of IP based networks. Thebackground server layer 13 is served as supervision of servers withdifferent functionalities.

As shown in FIG. #2, the central exchange system includes a unifiedexchange platform, a unified access platform, the background servers andthe interface to the network unit and background server unit. Theunified access platform consists of task scheduler, function supervisionunit, unified call unit database and background server interface; theunified exchange platform consists of call manager unit, devicesupervision unit, and the device scanner unit.

The task scheduler unit serves as task assignment in the unifiedexchange platform. The function supervision unit serves as thefulfillment of unified exchange platform maintenance function, includingport testing, port quest, etc. The unified call manager unit serves asthe call process and control for all the incoming and outgoing calls andrelated tasks. Any services of data, voice, image and video are treatedwith a unified call manager to process in order to fulfill the unifiedexchange for all kind of services under the unified exchange platform.The database caters for data support during all processing.

The device scanner unit serves as receiving and converting subscriberdata to IP packets. The device supervision unit charges for dataanalysis and call environment set up. In addition to device control, theissues connection requests to call manager unit, which handles all thecall related functionalities.

The unified exchange platform connects to the unified access platformthrough the network interface unit. The network unit charges for thereal time communication bandwidth of the unified access platform. Withinthe unified exchange platform all the communication units bundle in thenetwork interface. While a communication unit needs to work, a messageport, a kind of data structure, are assigned to it. While the unitrequires sleep, the port is hung up to save system resources. Thebackground server interface unit serves for the communication betweenthe unified exchange platform and the background servers.

As shown in FIG. #3, the central exchange system includes a basicexchange unit, a network connection control unit. The basic exchangeunit can be ported in from kinds of networks, such as public servicetelephone network, ISDN, carrier data network, cable TV network andsatellite network. All of the outputs of network control units can berouted to any IP based network for communication.

The exchange infrastructure, shown in FIG. #4, is for network terminal,which consists of main control unit(the system main board), bus unit(theback plan), and various kind of subscriber interface unit, networkinterface unit and power supply unit. The network interface unitincludes local area network and wide area network. The subscriber unitincludes an analog subscriber loop interface unit, central officeinterface unit, paired subscriber loop interface unit. All of thenetwork interfaces associate directly with the main control unit, whilethe subscriber interface unit and power supply unit connect to the maincontrol unit through bus unit.

The main control unit of the converged exchange is shown in FIG. #5. Itis served for centralizing the control to all the system for taskassignment, control and monitoring. This unit consists of the hostprocessor, data co-processor, system and data storages, bus unit, localarea network connection and wide area network connection unit, calendarunit and clock unit. The inter connection of the units is via peripheralbus interface(PCI), industrial standard architecture bus(ISA).

In the bus unit a remote boot up system monitor routing is built-in inorder to start the system from remote network.

The subscriber interface unit has several different interface designsfor easy adaptation to public service telephone network(PSTN).

1. Analog subscriber loop interface unit: This unit is designed for lowcast, easy adaptation to different countries protocols and simplifyingmanufacture. In the FIG. #8, the unit includes mainly a voice or hookcontrol logic circuitry, voltage current limiter, ringing loop drive,two line to four line conversion, and line status monitor circuitry.

2. Central office subscriber loop interface unit: This unit is for PSTNinterface. It is designed using a self-owned integrated voice loopcircuitry to implement the functionalities of the AC-DC conversion,ringing signal pick-up, automatic hooking, voltage and current limit,two line to four line conversion, and line status monitor.

3. Paired subscriber loop interface unit: This unit is the combinationof the analog subscriber loop interface(SLIC) with the central officesubscriber loop interface(COIC) as shown in FIG. #7. The two interfaceof the unit is associated through a power monitoring unit, by which theinter desk phone, or the SLIC port, can be switched back to outgoingtelephone line, or COIC port, while power supply is off. This functionincreases the availability of the telephone services for all theexchange system, and indirectly meets the market acceptance to a greaterextent.

The network connection unit comprises the network connection and thenetwork controller to implement the basic exchange functionalitiesbetween network terminals and the other Ethernet network devices, and tomonitor and control whole network system.

The power supply unit, shown in FIG. #6, comprises an advanced switchingpower supply design for high quality and multiple outputs, including thetelephone ringing power source. The ring source is specially designedfor space precious application. The power outputs are DC 5 Volts, DC 3.3Volts, DC −48 Volts and AC 96 Vpp in 20 Hertz, while the ring source iscapable to drive thirty-two ringing channels simultaneously.

One of the embodiments of the network terminal edge exchange isillustrated in FIG. #9, in accordance with the present invention. Theexchange system is built with a 10/100 mega bit Internet WAN interface82, a cooperate server interface 83, up to thirty two public servicetelephone network(PSTN) 84, and plain old telephone service networkinterfaces(POTS SLIC) 86, up to eight 10/100 mega bit Ethernet channelsfor local area network interface 85 in addition to the interface fornetwork management 81. The network security route and the firewallgateway are also implemented.

With the embodiment of the network terminal edge exchange, the convergedbusiness exchange system for the network terminal is implemented in FIG.#10. Such a converged exchange system not only realizes thefunctionalities of the Internet access, the local area networking(LAN),the PSTN access, the virtual private networking, the computer basedtelephony integration, and the telephone private branch exchange(PBX),but also makes the legacy voice telephony over all of these networks onwhich the IP based and/or non-IP based. The interaction of thetelephone, the data and the image can be realized in a unified way.Through the converged exchange terminal 90, local telephone 91,cooperate inter telephone 93, cooperate computer telephony, remoteInternet call 94 can be associated to each other, in addition to makinga conference call. The call made between two exchange terminals 90, suchas the computer phone 92 to the cooperate phone 93, can even be madeover virtual private network(VPN), making the communication easilymanageable and more secure than ever before.

Things are the same for data communications as that happened with thevoice telephony. Through the unified converged network exchangeterminals 90 access, the cooperate local area network and the cooperateVPN integrate with the Internet seamlessly, which brings greatconvenience for the communications between cooperates and the homeworking staffs or mobile users, the headquarters and their satelliteoffices.

The interactive communications also get great convenience only becausethe voice, data and visual media information are communicating in theway of unified packet and operable over LAN, WAN, PSTN, and VPN.

Checking in the FIG. #2 shows the accordance with the present inventionin how the unified calling takes place in a real world.

Say a calling device 200 connects to the basic exchange unit through theaccess network. When calling device 200 issues call request, this callis passed to the basic exchange unit, in which a device scanner unitprocesses the calling and its related information, converts the callingto be packet capable communication over IP networks, then submits thecall to device manager for unified access and handling.

Following the step 21, the device manager unit is in charge of analyzingthe submitted call, get ready to setup running environment for the call,takes control to the access operation, and issues call connectionrequest to the calling process unit;

Following the step 22, once the calling process unit gets the callingrequest, calling process and state control takes place, and interactswith the unified exchange platform through network interface unit;

Following the step 23, the task scheduler unit makes analysis to thecommunication request from the unified access platform, and creates aunified calling unit to process further;

Following the step 24, the unified call unit makes unified callingprocess for all the incoming calls and all the outgoing calls, fulfillsrelated call conversation functions;

Following the step 25, the unified call unit reports its housekeepingworks to the business function server through the unified backgroundserver interface, and fulfills other system supporting tasks further;

Following the step 26 and 27, this process continues to notify theaccess platform of the callee to process the current calling;

Following the step 28, once the access platform of the callee receivesthe message of making connection, the callee process environment sets upand the relative function is in processing.

Following the step 29, through the device scanner unit the calleeprocess is converted to the control instructions identifiable by theaccess device;

Following the step 30, then these instructions are delivered to theaccess device 201 finally.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention havedisclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims. Accordingly, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not to be limited by the specificillustrated embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.

GLOSSARY

1) Terminal Edge Network

As opposed to the core edge network, the terminal edge network is the“last mile” place that a user accesses to the overall global networks,no matter the network is IP based or not.

2) Converged Terminal Edge Network Business Exchange(CBX)

Enable users within the terminal edge network for accessing data andvoice transparently over LAN, WAN, PSTN and VPN with as affordablesecurity and minimal administration as possible.

3) Packet Based Integrated Telephony

Voice activities of talking, transportation, switching and storing overa network that is based on packet technology such as IP (InternetProtocol) as opposed to circuit switching such as the traditional PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN).

1. An integrated system of data network and telecommunication thatcomprises: an inter-network to execute non-IP protocols, and at leastone terminal for converged business data processing; the centralexchange system is made of at least one computer and one network linkingthe main control unit to form a local area network; each computer has abasic exchange unit to capture, analyses, and format data; the basicexchange unit outputs to an IP network; the non-IP protocol process unitlinks to the terminals and one network control unit links at least tothe basic exchange unit.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the convergedbusiness exchange system features that the mentioned network connectionunit includes network switch and network controller to make the control,link and monitor to basic exchange units.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the converged business exchange system features that thementioned network to execute non-IP protocols is Public ServiceTelephone Network(PSTN) or the Cable Television Network(CTN).
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the converged business exchange systemfeatures that the mentioned the network of converged businesses is themetropolis area network(MAN), or the local area network(LAN), or thevirtual private network(VPN), or the optical network(SONET), or thesatellite data network(VAST).
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentioned theconverged exchange terminal comprises at least: a main control unit, anetwork interface unit, a subscriber unit, power supply unit and a busunit; the network interface unit associates directly to the main controlunit, to which the subscriber unit and the power supply unit areconnected via the bus unit.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentioned maincontrol unit comprises at least: a central or host processor, a dataco-processor, calendar unit, system and data storage, network interfaceunit, clock and bus unit.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentioned networkunit includes at least: a local area network interface and a wide areanetwork interface.
 8. The system of claim 5, wherein the convergedbusiness exchange system features that the mentioned subscriberinterface unit includes at least: an analog subscriber loop interfaceunit, a carrier or service provider interface unit, a paired analogsubscriber loop interface unit.
 9. The system of claim 6, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentioned thenetwork connection unit includes at least a local area network interfaceunit and a wide area network interface unit.
 10. The system of claim 5,wherein the converged business exchange system features that thementioned power supply unit includes at least an AC-DC conversion unit,an optical isolated sampling and unit, and a ring source generator unit.11. The system of claim 10, wherein the converged business exchangesystem features that the mentioned the ring source generator is built inthe main power supply board, and capable to ring the telephones up tothirty two channels.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the convergedbusiness exchange system features that the mentioned the opticalisolated sampling is for the multiple power output simultaneously. 13.The system of claim 10, wherein the converged business exchange systemfeatures that the mentioned the power output rates DC 5.0V or DC 3.3V,or DC−48V or AC−96 Vpp/20 Hz.
 14. The system of claim 6, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that said data storage isdirectly set in a mainboard of the system.
 15. The system of claim 5,wherein the converged business exchange system features that thementioned bus unit includes at least a standard industrial interface, aperipheral interface, a general purpose serial bus, a smart disk, or asmall computer system interface.
 16. The system of claim 8, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentioned analogsubscriber loop interface unit comprises a ringing drive circuitry, anintegrated voice interface circuitry (POTSIC), ring loop, and voicecoding and decoding circuitry.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein theconverged business exchange system features that the mentionedintegrated voice interface circuitry (POTSIC) consists of a linefunction switch circuitry, voltage current limiter, voice and hookcontrol logics, and line status monitoring circuitry.
 18. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the converged business exchange system features thatthe mentioned analog paired subscriber loop unit mixes an analogsubscriber loop interface with a telephone carrier interface.
 19. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the converged business exchange systemfeatures that the mentioned analog paired subscriber loop unit includesa power down monitoring unit, for which the inter desk phone can beswitched back to outgoing telephone line while power is off.
 20. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the converged business exchange systemfeatures that the mentioned basic exchange unit comprises at least aunified access platform, a unifies exchange platform, and one or morebackground servers; with the network interface the unified exchangeplatform connects to the unified access platform and the backgroundservers.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein the converged businessexchange system features that the mentioned unified access platformcomprises a call manager unit, a device supervision unit, and a devicescanner unit this device scanner unit converts data from subscribersinto IP packets, and passes them to device supervision unit foranalyzing, building up call environment and issuing the call relatedrequests to call manager unit; with the network interface the callmanager unit associates with the task scheduler unit of the unifiedexchange unit.
 22. The system of claim 20, wherein the convergedbusiness exchange system features that the mentioned unifies exchangeplatform comprises at least a task scheduler unit for task assignment, asupervision unit for switch layer maintenance, a database, and a unifiedcall unit for data services and voice or video services call manager;with the background server interface the task scheduler unit associateswith the supervision unit and the unified call unit.
 23. The system ofclaim 20, wherein the converged business exchange system features thatthe mentioned background server includes at least a numbering server forcall number processing, a bill rating server for the billing analysis indifferent service locations and time spans, a verification server forvalidating subscriber, a billing server for bill clearance and aperformance monitoring server for supervision the exchange systemrunning status; all of theses server are associated with the unifiedexchange platform through a unified exchange server interface.